Young People Struggle to Find Their Place

Post-Pandemic Decline Has Stalled

In 2020, global youth unemployment exceeded 15%, falling to 12.3% by 2023. After that, the decline stopped: in 2025, the rate rose to 12.4% (67 million people). Over the past two years, the number of countries where youth unemployment increased nearly doubled the number where it decreased—105 versus 58.

The gap with other age groups remains substantial. With youth unemployment at 12.4%, the rate for those over 25 stands at just 3.6%. This shows that young people face significantly greater difficulty entering the labor market and finding their first job than those who already have experience.

Youth unemployment rose most sharply in North Africa, up 1.8 percentage points, North America (+1.6 p.p.), and Northern, Southern, and Western Europe (+0.8 p.p.). The highest levels were recorded in Arab countries at 26.2%, North Africa at 22.6%, and Europe at around 15%.

Dropping Out Is Easier Than Finding Your First Job

A separate problem involves young people who stop participating in both the labor market and education altogether. In 2025, the share of those not working, studying, or in training reached 20%, up 0.3 percentage points. That's more than 257 million people.

For the economy, this is a more serious signal than unemployment itself. Someone actively seeking work remains connected to the labor market. A young person who simultaneously drops out of both work and education loses time to gain experience and skills. The longer this period continues, the harder it becomes to return to a normal career trajectory.

At the same time, low unemployment in certain regions doesn't always indicate a healthy labor market. In sub-Saharan Africa, it stands at 8.4%, yet a significant portion of young people work in the informal sector without stable employment. So the unemployment figure alone doesn't reveal how good the quality of employment actually is.

AI is changing the start of careers

Another factor gradually changing the position of young workers is technological development. According to estimates by the International Labour Organization (ILO), 6.1% of jobs held by people aged 15–29 fall into categories most susceptible to AI influence.

That said, we're not yet talking about these jobs disappearing outright because of AI. Rather, their content and quantity are changing. Since 2023, the number of mid-level positions for young professionals has been declining, including in office and administrative work, retail, services, and other areas with high volumes of routine tasks. At the same time, demand is growing for specialists in engineering, science, and healthcare.

For young people, this matters because entry-level positions have often been the first step in a career. They provided a chance to gain experience, learn work processes, and then move on to more complex roles. If such positions become scarcer, the requirements for someone without experience rise right at the entry point to a profession.

In Russia, the problem looks different

The Russian labor market is currently in a different situation. Overall unemployment has dropped to around 2.1–2.2%, meaning it's at historic lows. Meanwhile, the share of young people among all unemployed has grown over five years from 17.3% to 22%, reaching 353,000 people.

These figures can't be interpreted directly as rising youth unemployment: we're talking about the share of young people among all those without work. The higher figure may partly be explained by young people entering the market earlier—through internships, practicums, and temporary employment.

But at the same time, signs of a more difficult situation are emerging. According to according to research data , the number of résumés from young job seekers in the first half of 2026 rose by roughly a third, while the number of vacancies fell 19% year-over-year. Average job search duration increased by 12 days to 5.4 months, and the share of unemployed workers without experience grew from 26% to 32%.

Jobs exist, but not the right ones

Russia's main problem isn't a shortage of jobs as such. There are plenty of vacancies, and the talent deficit remains one of the biggest constraints for business. But rising demand for workers is concentrated primarily in manufacturing, factories, construction, transport, and other sectors where employers need specific skills and willingness to work set schedules.

Young job seekers view the market differently. Around 70% of their applications are for white-collar positions (in an office or at a computer) with flexible schedules, while roughly 80% of entry-level vacancies involve shift work in mass-market professions. As a result, formally open positions don't automatically translate into employment for graduates.

A similar gap emerges between education and demand structure. Someone can spend several years training for a profession that was in demand when they chose their school, only to graduate and find that employers are actively seeking workers in other industries. For business, what matters isn't the diploma itself but the specific skill set they need right now. Young specialists, by contrast, often face a choice between working outside their field and a prolonged search for a suitable position.

The first step becomes the hardest

As a result, Russia's labor market faces a paradox: there's a worker shortage, yet young people without experience still struggle to find suitable positions. This isn't the classic mass unemployment scenario where the economy simply lacks enough vacancies. Rather, it's a mismatch between the structure of supply and demand.

For companies, the problem is that newcomers need training. For graduates, it's that without a first job, they can't gain the experience employers require. If the most accessible vacancies are in sectors and formats that don't align with young people's expectations, this gap can persist even amid an overall talent shortage.

The global labor market shows this problem can become long-term. When an economy simultaneously creates too few new jobs for young people and eliminates some traditional entry-level positions due to technology, the path from education to first employment becomes harder. In Russia, there's an added distortion: young people graduate with one set of skills and expectations, while core business demand forms in other segments.